The First Monitors
by RobertDBallard
Summary: Ana and Frederick Niehaus would do anything to have a child. Exploring Cosima's upbringing, and her journey to self-awareness. I own nothing, etc etc. It's my first time, please be gentle :)
1. Chapter 1

Ana and Frederick Niehaus were a perfect match. He was one of most in-demand programmers in San Francisco's blossoming tech industry, and she, a brilliant professor in Berkeley's Neuroscience department. The only thing missing from their beautiful home was a child to call their own. It wasn't for lack of trying; surrogates fell through, In-Vitro Fertilization wouldn't take, and adoption lists were miles long. Brilliant as they were, they had reached the end of their rope.

Doctor Leekie of the DYAD institute offered a solution.

"We've tried IVF three times" Ana leafed through the pamphlets. "I don't think I can handle another heartbreak."

"Then, you'll be pleased to hear we've had a nearly 100% success rate with our study" Dr. Leekie smiled. "Our precision fertilization method using flawless donor eggs perfectly configured to the carrier uterus has been nothing short of miraculous."

"What's the catch?" Frederick asked. It sounded too good to be true.

"It is a long-term study, so all we'd need is a few samples once a year. Your child's physician can easily take them at their annual physical. And, of course, you'll let us know if you notice anything out of the ordinary." Dr. Leekie slid the paperwork across the desk.

"So, we'd be his, or her…monitors?" Ana tried to keep her gesticulating hands settled.

"You'd be her parents."

Nine months later, their promised miracle was delivered. "Ten fingers, ten toes, she's perfect." Frederick cradled their newborn bundle of happiness, gently placing her in Ana's waiting arms.

"She's beautiful." Ana stroked their newborn's cheek.

"You guys pick out a name yet?" Their nurse asked.

"Cosima." They replied together.

* * *

"But if he's underwater, how does he breathe?" Young Cosima stood on her tiptoes to feed her new pet goldfish. Why, how, what, they were her favorite words. Her thirst for knowledge was insatiable. "See those lines?" Ana rested her finger on the glass. "Those are gills." Her hands started to wander, as they often did when she tried to condense hard science into language fit for a six-year old. "They help fish breathe just like your lungs help you."

"Hella neat." Cosima was enraptured.

"What do you say we do a little science class?" Ana pulled a magnifying glass out of the side table drawer. "Do you think you can find few bugs in the garden?"

"Can we look at them under your microscope?" Cosima bounced with giddiness.

"If you can find them" Ana smiled. She was overjoyed to be raising a child with such a curiosity in the world around her. She'd be lucky to have a student with half of Cosima's excitement. At her age, she could have that fascination without worrying about the minutiae of grant letters and study proposals. She just hoped she could keep up with all of the answers.

As the years passed, Cosima's curiosity only grew. Her teachers wrote glowing reviews of her exemplary work. Trips to museums typically ended with being chased out by tired security guards after hours. Of course, Frederick wasn't surprised to see Cosima sitting at their kitchen table with what used to be the family toaster in a few dozen pieces.

"Whatcha got there, Cos?" Frederick set down his laptop.

"I might've hit a speed bump." She replied, sliding her glasses up her nose as she tried to retrace her steps.

"How's the first week of school?" He started sorting a few parts.

"It's okay." She shrugged. High school was a strange environment. It was only a few days in, but it seemed like the other students cared very little about what was happening in the classroom. She'd never been preoccupied with popularity, but it seemed to be the only thing that mattered amongst her new peers.

"Just okay?" Sure, she'd kept to herself through middle school, but that hadn't stopped her from making friends.

"Classes are cool, everyone else is just a dick." She rested her chin on her hands, watching her father's hands perform the delicate task of repairing what she'd wrecked.

"Sounds about right." He connected a couple of wires. High school was rarely a lifetime pinnacle, but he knew how hard that was to see in the moment.

"So, I'll be stuck dealing with Neanderthals for the next four years?"

"High school's weird for everyone." He explained, testing his last connection. "Everyone's a little bit lost, so they try to fit in the best they can." He slid down the lever. Perfect assembly. "Just remember, Cosima, you're one of a kind. All you have to do is be you."

"Just like that, huh?" She was skeptical, of course, but she thought it was sweet he tried.

"I know, 'show, don't tell'" He smiled. "All in time." He'd grown to wonder if he should've ever taught her the phrase. He turned his attention back to the coding on his laptop.

"More life-changing office suite software?" She teased.

"Just some rudimentary binary, I'm afraid." He tilted the screen her way. "The technology's ancient, but enduring." She scooted her stool closer.

"How's it work?"


	2. Chapter 2

"…And just like that, we had Dolly, the sheep." The Biology teacher finished plotting out the chart on the board.

"So, given what we can do with IVF, and surrogacy, what's to stop scientists from cloning humans?" Cosima asked, not really bothering to raise her hand.

"The law, for one thing." Her teacher replied. "Not to mention, it's considered unethical in the scientific community. How would you feel if you bumped into your clone on the street?"

"Pretty stoked, she could go to gym class for me" Cosima smirked as her classmates snickered.

"I wouldn't throw out those sneakers just yet, Miss Niehaus." He queued up a new slide on the board. "A person's genetics are only part of the human equation. _How_ those genes are expressed can affect everything from personality traits to behaviors, even outward appearance." He scrolled through the corresponding pictures on the slide show. "Who can tell me what affects the 'how' here?"

"Environment." Cosima's mind was whizzing ahead at warp speed. Something inside her just clicked into gear. "The um, whole nurture part of 'nature-versus-nurture' like, home life, weather, diet, stuff like that." Her classmates couldn't quite keep up with her speedy ramble

"Precisely. Take a look at identical twins separated at birth." He pulled up a new chart showing the study. Their genetic material was identical, but the way they looked, the way they stood….they were so very different.

"How do they manage to-" Cosima had a million thoughts on the matter, but she was silenced by the bell.

"To be continued." Her teacher smiled as the students packed their books. "Cosima…" He called after her, scribbling a quick note down on some scrap paper. "See if you can find this book in the library, I think you'll like what he has to say."

"Yeah, man, cool. I'll check it out." She got a few steps down the hall before she unfolded the paper. _The Origin of Species - Darwin_

* * *

Across town, Ana was wrapping up her own lecture. "Make sure you spend plenty of time on chapter twelve, use that hippocampus you learned so much about."

"Humor's an excellent technique for information retention." Dr. Leekie grinned, descending the steps of the emptying lecture hall.

"Kaplan and Pascoe, 1977, got me through my doctoral dissertation." She replied, recalling the very study. Still, it was surprising to see him turn up out of the blue. "What brings you all the way out here?"

"The Chinese take-out, of course." He joked. "I'm giving a lecture at Stanford tomorrow, and I thought I'd stop by for my check-in in person."

"Yikes, has it been fifteen years already?" She glanced at her watch in jest.

"The years have a pesky habit of flying by. Got time to grab some coffee?"

* * *

Cosima settled into her station in the chemistry lab. She didn't expect to see a new face across the bench.

"Wow. You're not Jeannie."

"Uh, nope, not the last time I checked." He replied, his nervousness slipping right through his attempted cool demeanor. Of all of the places the teacher could have sat him, it was here, across from a beautiful girl, and he had let the silence sit for an awkwardly long period of time. "I just moved here from New York, the timing isn't great, but at least the weather's better over here." He tried to recover with more friendly small talk.

"Yeah, the fog's really pretty this time of year." She couldn't help but smile.

"I'm Peter." He suddenly realized he had yet to introduce himself. "You can call me Pete, my friends do—not that we're friends yet but we could be, I'm su-" How he wished he could find the sense to stop talking. Was it warm in here? He could feel the sweat stains forming.

"Cosima." She mercifully interrupted. "You gonna make it, man?" She couldn't help but tease a little bit when he was so adorably flustered.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll find a way." He laughed much louder than he intended.

"Dude, you're almost as weird as me, I love it." She smirked, lighting the Bunsen burner. No one in school really gave her the time of day, yet here was this new kid who thought she was awesome. This could be fun after all. "Let's see what you got, Pete."

* * *

In the cozy college café, Doctor Leekie found a free table for the two of them talk. "So, how's Cosima?" He sipped his coffee.

"At that age" Ana smiled "I keep waiting for the day she comes home with purple hair and a nose ring."

"Despite our best efforts at the DYAD, there's no cure for adolescence." He pulled out a few files.

"Teenage angst aside, she's pretty fantastic." She cradled her coffee cup. "She's brilliant, really. I don't think I've met anyone with such a thirst for knowledge." Her peers at the University could learn a thing or two from her daughter, for sure. "One of these days I'll be going to her with my questions."

"I'm not surprised, she's grown up in a home rich with learning." He leafed through a few papers before finding the right ones. "Not to mention, with a renowned neurologist doing groundbreaking research in Neural Plasticity and regeneration."

"Ah, so you found my paper." Sure, it had been well received, but she didn't expect it to catch his attention.

"A little light reading on the plane ride." He thumbed through the thick tome for effect.

"It's no Spanish Influenza vaccine, but it keeps me busy."

"We could certainly use a mind like yours at the DYAD institute."

Of all the things she expected from her daughter's 15-year check-in, a job offer was never on Ana's radar. It caught her off guard. "I thought we were here to talk about Cosima" She deflected.

"Of course" He tactfully retreated. "She's in excellent health, her grades are impeccable, young Cosima may very well be the poster child for our little study." The data he'd collected on her didn't lie. She was extraordinary, and he'd definitely have to keep an eye on her.

"Fred and I are certainly thankful. We were ready to give up before you came along."

"Then I hope you can at least give me the chance woo you away from Berkeley." She'd given him the opening, and he pounced on it. He slid the lecture flyer across the table. "Just give me an hour. If nothing else, come for the free wine."

"You drive a hard bargain, Dr. Leekie." She nodded in acceptance. "I'll be there."

"Excellent. I think you'll like what you hear." He started to gather his things. "Just one more thing" the actual important part of his coffee date "we're going to have to increase our tests on Cosima to twice a year."

"I thought she was in excellent health" Ana was confused, the news had come from way out in left field.

"She is, I assure you. It's just been a few isolated incidents with a very small percentage of our participants" Vicious autoimmune diseases, lung polyps, all very real dangers for Cosima. He turned the charm up to eleven

"What kind of incidents?" She wasn't going to let him off so easily.

"Well, I can't exactly share that, I'm bound by confidentiality" he hemmed and hawed "but I can disclose that the participant was in a community supplied with contaminated groundwater." That was the cover story, at least, but it was enough to throw Ana off his trail.

"So, I have nothing to worry about?"

"We're just following proper protocol, and taking extra precautions."

The assurance put Ana at ease. It was why he was the one who monitored the monitors.

"I'll be seeing you at the lecture, Dr. Niehaus."


	3. Chapter 3

Cosima wasn't a fan of the lunchroom. She'd much rather be nose-deep in a physiology textbook, but the stodgy old coot in the library wouldn't let her sneak in a bite.

"Dude, it's just a veggie wrap, I think the books can handle it." She tried to protest

"It wouldn't hurt to spend a little time with your peers, Miss Niehaus." The librarian shooed her away.

Her peers, which today, included two members of the varsity football team engaged in a pickle-eating contest. Neither of them was winning.

Cosima scanned the room, hoping to find a little square of solitude. She was about to give up when she noticed Peter sitting alone. Maybe this socializing thing wouldn't be so bad after all.

"Hey, is it cool if I pop a squat?" She set down her lunch bag

"Y-yeah, yeah sure, come on down." He moved his mess of papers and folders to clear a space for her.

"Writing your memoirs?" She nodded to the papers strewn about.

"Just trying to catch up." He replied. "That's the fun part of starting school in the middle of the semester."

"Bummer."

"Eh, I'm kinda used to it by now." He shrugged. "My parents are in the military, so we bounce around."

"Oh, cool, what do they do?"

"My mom's in intelligence, my dad's in research and development, and, if I tell you any more, I'd have to kill you.

"Come on" She leaned in closer. "I promise I won't tell anyone where you're hiding Captain America" She teased.

"Too funny." He looked over at her small stack of books. "You're reading Darwin? Hardcore." He knew she was a force in the classroom, but he was impressed she cared to learn after the bell.

"Yeah, I'm only like, three chapters in, but I'm so freakin' hooked." Most people would take this as a chance to mock her for her efforts, but he was just as interested. It was remarkable.

"Just wait till you get to the part where he cuts down intelligent design." He'd always had a hard time making friends in a new school, but it was so seamless with her. Suddenly, he had someone who wanted to geek out with him.

"Geez, easy on the spoilers." She took a bite of her wrap, revealing the nautilus shell on her forearm.

"Whoa, is that real?"

"Oh, this?" She glanced down at the Sharpie drawing. "Not yet. Just got a little bored in English class."

"I'll take the Fibonacci sequence over _The Great Gatsby_ any day."

"Yeah, ditto, obvs." She was starting to feel grateful for getting kicked out of the library. He was way, way better company than any old textbook. The bell rang, setting the scores of students in motion.

"Hey, if you're not doing anything tonight, you should come over to my place, you can try to kick my ass at Command and Conquer" She started packing her books. "My parents'll be at some lecture at Stanford, they won't care."

"You play?" His eyes lit up.

"Please, I'm beta testing Red Alert 2."

"T-that's awesome." Just a game that wouldn't be released for another year. "Yeah, yeah I'll see you tonight." He was just barely holding it together. He was going to be walking on air for the rest of the day.

* * *

"Oh come on now, it'll be fun." Ana dragged Fred along through the lecture hall.

"Fun for you." He corrected. Don't get him wrong, he admired his wife and her studies, but for a numbers and coding guy like him, life science lectures were a bit stuffy.

"If nothing else, we get to see what he's up to when he's not overseeing miracle in-vitro trials." Dr. Leekie was the one who made Cosima possible. She'd sit through an hour of him tap dancing if he'd wanted.

Moments later, Dr. Leekie took center stage.

"Thank you for tearing yourselves away from the Giants game to be with me tonight." He grinned, warming up the crowd.

"I think you'll find the work we've been doing at the DYAD will impact the future of humankind far greater than any old homerun from Barry Bonds." He started his presentation. "Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce, the science of tomorrow, for today, Neolution."

The light show was a nice touch, but Ana was a skeptic. She too, was a scientist, so it was practically her civic duty to poke holes in his arguments.

"Doctor Niehaus, what if I told you that in just a few years, you can ditch those glasses for a corneal implant, capable of seeing _every_ nanometer of the light spectrum?" He put her on the spot.

"How about a time machine, so I can go tell myself not to sit so close to the TV?" She quipped. "Or maybe, I just start with contact lenses." Why take broad leaps when baby steps can bring a great result?

"And so, you could." He spun her remarks in his favor. "Neolution is about owning that chance to direct your future." He had the room wrapped around his finger.

* * *

"So glad you two could make it." Dr. Leekie greeted the couple at the reception afterwards.

"The invitation was very kind, thank you." Ana replied diplomatically.

"I should've known better than to call you out, I'm glad you went easy on me." Dr. Leekie poured on the compliments, circling his prey.

"Wouldn't be very nice of me to show you up at your own lecture." She wasn't quite ready to bite. "Me, I'd just rather show, than tell."

"Still, I do enjoy turning skeptics into believers, so my offer certainly still stands." He sipped from his wine glass.

"Offer? What offer?" Frederick asked.

"Just a thing at the DYAD." Ana brushed it off.

"Hardly just a thing." Dr. Leekie flashed his signature grin as he extended a business card to Frederick. "We'd be lucky to have a pair of brilliant minds like yours at our little institute."

"It's a tempting offer, but I don't think we could just up and move to Toronto." Fred took a look at the card. "After all, it's not just us, we've got to think about Cosima, thanks to you."

"Just promise me you'll let the idea soak overnight." Dr. Leekie eased off the pressure. He looked to Ana. "In the meantime, what do you say we fill him in on our little coffee talk yesterday."

* * *

"You call two tesla coils a base defense?" Cosima directed her virtual army across the couch from Peter. "It's like you're begging me to beat you."

"Maybe if someone didn't mine all the resource gems, I could build more." He dug into his bowl of popcorn. No question, she was kicking his ass.

"Well, now you're just making excuses." She teased, obliterating his virtual base once more. "Whaddya say? Best out of seven?"

"Just don't tell my parents you wiped the floor with me." He replied sheepishly. "Can't be a four-star General if I lose this badly in a fake war."

"Planning on carrying on with the family business?"

"Doesn't feel like I have much of a choice in the matter." He shrugged. "My dad already has me tracking down Congress members to write me a West Point letter." Just a little bit of parental pressure. "You?"

"Nothing's really set in stone." She shook her head. "My parents are pretty chill about it, 'whatever makes me happy' and all that stuff."

"You're good at science, do something with that." He replied. Good was an understatement, given what he'd learned from her in their short time of being acquainted.

"Just, all the science?" She laughed that infectious laugh. Science was a big field, she'd have to do a little narrowing down "All that cloning stuff was kinda cool. I'll bet there's loads of weird data to mine there."

"Clone a bigger and better animal, they'll put you on billboards."

"Deal. I promise I'll send pictures to whatever warzone you're overlording." To someone her age, that future seemed like a million years away, but it was still fun to tease it out.

"Deal." He smiled. "Oh, shoot." He caught a glance at the clock. "I told my parents I'd be home half an hour ago." He scrambled to pack his things.

"I uh, had a really good time tonight." He said as Cosima showed him to the door.

"Yeah, me too." She grinned. "We should totally do it again."

"Awesome." He'd been standing there an awkwardly long time, and was suddenly aware of it. "I'll see you in class tomorrow." He made an abrupt exit, hoping the beads of sweat didn't show.

"Bike safe." She waved after him. She felt lucky. She'd managed to find a friend in the high school safari that just got her for the funny little geek that she was. Hella neat.


	4. Chapter 4

"He's certainly a charmer, I can see why the DYAD keeps him around." Ana fished for her keys in her purse on their doorstep.

"Not to mention, the crazy science." Frederick got his out first. "You've got to admit, though, that Neolution stuff is pretty intriguing."

"Sounds like the fancy designer version of Cold Spring Harbor" Ana replied. During the presentation she couldn't help but think of the infamous Eugenics laboratory. The more she thought about it, the uneasier she felt. If this was his new area of study, what was really going on in the study they were currently enrolled?

"Cos, what are you still doing up?" Ana hadn't expected to see her lazily sprawled on the couch with her laptop. Well, at least not at that hour.

"Out past your curfew with no phone call? I had to make sure you kids got home in one piece." Cosima did love when she could turn the tables on her folks.

"Cute." Frederick planted a kiss on his daughter's forehead. "Come on, up you go, it's a school night."

"I wanted to hear about the lecture" She pouted in protest, dragging herself off the couch, allowing the teenage whine to escape.

"You can read our notes tomorrow." Ana promised, as Cosima begrudgingly came in for a hug. "G'night, sweets" Ana lingered in the embrace longer than usual. Dr. Leekie made this moment possible. She had to at least give him the benefit of the doubt, right?

"Mom…" Cosima rolled her eyes. "Thought you guys wanted me to go to bed…"

"Ah, yes, how rude of me." Ana snapped out of her brief spell. "Love you bunches." She called after Cosima as she ascended the stairs.

"Love you more." She called back, retreating to her room.

"Come on, Cold Spring Harbor?" Frederick said once Cosima was out of earshot. He didn't think Dr. Leekie was going quite so far. "He's innovating, not eliminating."

"Just trying to create a more perfect human. Like that's never caused trouble before." Ana fixed another drink. Spirited debates into the wee hours of the night were just another perk of marrying a fellow scholar.

"We make choices to improve already." He sipped his bourbon. "You wear glasses, hell, I wear orthotics in my running shoes." He wasn't seeing the big deal in all this commotion.

"You heard him, that's not the kind of changes he's talking about." She settled across from him. "Choosing to read clearly, and choosing to have x-ray vision are separate entities entirely" her hands flew as she got more riled up.

"Yeah, but who's to say it wouldn't be useful?" He shrugged, trying to diffuse the growing tension.

"I don't like the implications, okay?" Ana caught herself before her voice rose too much. He clearly hadn't taken the lecture the same way she did. It wasn't just the stuff of comic books. This particular brand of innovation in the wrong hands…well, one can't simply stuff the genie back into the bottle.

Frederick raised an eyebrow. As passionately as they could debate a topic, it rarely escalated in such a way. He took his hand in hers, interlacing their fingers.

"What's going on, hon?" Something was on her mind, and it certainly didn't take x-ray vision to see it.

"I don't know." It was hard to express all the doubt that'd suddenly festered since her seemingly-innocuous coffee meeting with Dr. Leekie. "The DYAD, the increased physicals for Cosima, this Neolution craze, doesn't it make you worry?"

"It sounds like they're just staying on top of things, sweetheart, like he said, just precautionary" He was optimistic. After all, they didn't have any reason to doubt that Dr. Leekie wasn't working for Cosima's best interests.

"What if all the Neolution business is because of the IVF trial?" She finally pinpointed the gnat buzzing about in her mind. What if there was something wrong, and they weren't being told the whole truth?

"Whoa, whoa, sweetie, you're taking some quantum leaps, here." He tried to bring her back down to earth. It was a lofty charge to be making. "If something was wrong, they would have tell us."

He was right. Dr. Leekie had been up front about everything so far. Still, the thought was hard to shake.

* * *

Upstairs, Cosima wasn't as asleep as she'd promised she'd be. Of course she could hear her parents, and of course, she was curious.

"DYAD, huh?" She mumbled, falling into a search engine wormhole.

* * *

A couple of weeks later, Frederick gave Cosima's door a hearty knock. "Up and at 'em, kiddo, you're gonna be late again."

"Save yourself, go on without me." She groaned, pulling the covers back over her head. Her body decided to rebel today, and make her feel like death warmed over. Like the flu, if tiny viral cells carried tiny baseball bats to beat her senseless from the inside-out.

Frederick took this as his cue to enter. "Little under the weather, Cos?" He gave her cheeks a feel with the back of his hand. Definitely warm. Such was the joys of being a parent during flu season. "Think we'll stay home today."

"I have a bio midterm today. I have to go." Her brain was ready to go, but her body wasn't sharing the same enthusiasm.

"I think your teacher would rather have you here, than spreading chapter sixteen all over class." He gave her hand a squeeze. "Get some rest, we'll see if Dr. Conway can squeeze us in for an appointment."

* * *

Ana couldn't check her messages until after her morning lectures. "…_Cos is fine, her fever ran a bit high, but Dr. Conway thinks it's just the flu…_" she debated cancelling her afternoon right then and there. "…_don't worry, she's resting. We're just gonna take it easy today. I'll have dinner waiting when you get home." _ The worried mother in her was drowning out the logical scientist. Everything was apparently under control, but in light of what'd happened a few weeks before, she couldn't keep herself from dialing the number on the wrinkled business card kept in her drawer.

"Dr. Leekie, it's 324B21 on line two." The cool voice announced the call. "Just a moment." He replied, picking up the receiver. "Dr. Niehaus, finally considering my offer?"

"Not quite." Ana replied. Boy, he was relentless. "You um, told me to call if there was anything out of the ordinary with Cosima?"

That certainly got his attention. "Yes, yes, of course, is everything alright?"

"I don't really know." She replied, suddenly feeling very stupid for calling.

"Come now, what's on your mind?" Sixteen years deep in the study, he was well-versed in matters with concerned parents.

"She's sick, Dr. Leekie." She fumbled her hands nervously. "You've seen her records, she doesn't get sick. And with everything you were saying before about precautions-"

"You're a scientist, Dr. Niehaus." He went straight to his best tricks in the book. "You're not like other parents. You have the burden of knowledge." It was true. There was such a thing as knowing too much. "If it gives you peace of mind, we'll have our best brains look over the tests her primary physician drew today."

"That would help, thanks." She finally exhaled. That Leekie had a knack saying the perfect thing to calm her down, like, every time.

"I'll even throw in my best soup recipe." He smiled, putting the cherry on top. Monitoring the monitors, all in a day's work. "We'll talk again soon."


	5. Chapter 5

Cosima wasn't used to being away from her studies for this long. It was only four days, but it might as well have been a semester. She was surrounded by thrice-read encyclopedias, and a dial-up internet connection. No wonder people hated getting the flu.

She kept coming back to the DYAD webpage. What did her parents have to do with some bio-tech corporation a thousand miles away? And Doctor Leekie? All she could find on him was a couple of articles on therapeutic cloning. She couldn't even try to bring up the topic without her parents changing the subject.

"Hey, sweets?" Ana poked her head in the bedroom doorframe. "Pete's downstairs, he's got a few dozen pounds of notes for you. Up for a visitor?"

"Obvs." She blurted out, very ready for any human contact that wasn't from a parent. "I'm allowed, right?" She asked cautiously. Last thing she wanted was to get him sick.

"Fever's been gone long enough, I'll allow for it." Ana cracked a smile, motioning for him to come join the party as she took her leave.

"Hey." The butterflies had settled since they'd first met, but his nervous smile crept through. "Sorry, I probably should've gotten these to you sooner." He dropped the small mountain of handouts and assignments on her desk.

"Dude, that's all you could carry?" She teased, pulling over a chair for him. "Some General you're gonna make."

"Pathetic, I know." He hadn't realized how much he'd really missed having her around at school until he sat across from her. "So, when do they make you start living in a giant plastic bubble?"

"Don't give my parents any ideas." She started thumbing through the notes. Nothing particularly groundbreaking, but she had to be sure she wasn't missing anything. "I feel better, they're just waiting on a couple of stupid tests to make sure I don't have, like, dengue fever, or something. My parents are suspiciously thorough when it comes to my health."

"Can't be soon enough, I've been stuck with Ben Graydon as my lab partner. Guy can't even hold a test tube right side up, let alone titrate solvents." Not to mention, he was a terrible conversationalist. He made him miss Cosima's company all the more.

"Plus, I'm pretty sure you're like the only other person at school who knows my name." He deflected his feelings of lonesomeness in humor.

"Yeah, I missed ya too." She was never one to be coy with her feelings.

"Kinda lonely up here in the Batcave, huh?" He was fascinated by the sheer number of books surrounding them.

"Hard to save Gotham when you're stuck with the flu." She coughed through a laugh.

"Hopefully this'll take your mind off it." He flipped through the notes to find the right assignment. "There's a City-wide science fair, we get extra credit if we do it, and some sick college scholarship money if we win."

"Sweet!" Cosima looked over the flyer. Hardcore science? Of course she was interested. "I've got like, thirty ideas already. We should start planning, there's a million ways we can do this." Her mind was steamrolling, setting her off on a ramble."

"You'll be my partner?"

"Duh. I mean, if Ben Graydon isn't already taken."

* * *

"So, you're not worried about our daughter alone upstairs with a boy we hardly know because…?" Frederick was a father. He couldn't help being on guard when some teenager with a Y-chromosome was around his little girl.

"Because, he's a good kid from a good family." Ana got a kick out of seeing him get so worked up over their visitor. "We met his mom ages ago. Remember that conference in Chicago?"

"She the one with the mice that ran forever?" He tried to recall the highlights.

"The very same." She nodded. "We had coffee last week. Apparently the military took an interest in her research and she's been with them ever since."

"You know her secrets? Surprised you weren't black-bagged and tossed in a van." He smirked, turning his attention back to the miles and miles of coding on his laptop.

"We're having dinner with them next weekend if you can pass the background check." She replied with a wink. It was high time they got to meet the parents.

"I thought you left all the coding to Omari these days." She brought a steaming mug of tea over. He'd been typing away non-stop since they'd seen Leekie's lecture together.

"I do, usually." He replied, taking a brief pause. "I'm still trying to work the kinks out of this new medical software." He explained, staying very light on the details. "But, hopefully, when I'm done, Doctors will be able to scan through millions of samples in the blink of an eye."

"Easy on the dirty talk, the kids can hear." She flashed a sly grin, giving his shoulders a quick squeeze. Crazy science, indeed.

* * *

"Dr. Leekie, I've finished the blood work on 324B21." The young lab tech set the file on his cavernous desk.

"Thanks." He mumbled, adding it to the rest of the latest data he'd collected on Cosima. He was right, it definitely was the flu, but still, there was something that didn't quite add up. The clone cells were purposely bred to have a superior immune system. One did not simply "get" the flu. Something was going on in there, and he was going to have to work double time to figure out how this related to the deceased subjects. A mutation, perhaps? Had they missed something in the last round of tests? The original genome was long lost to the lab explosion. Collateral damage to silence the Duncans. Sad, yes, but progress came at a price. Young Rachel was already thriving, the rest of the flock were sure to follow. He had yet to meet Cosima, but he already admired her from afar. He was often chided for his attachment to his subjects. He had practically raised Rachel as his own for the last seven years, it was hard not to feel a sense of responsibility for their well-being. He needed to get to the root of this new problem before it had a chance to escalate.

"Aldous, why is it I am only now hearing about 324B21?" The executive strode into his office unannounced.

"Do come in, Marion." He looked away from his meticulous charting.

"Am I going to have another Chippewa Falls on my hands, here? There are only so many places in the world with contaminated groundwater." She folded her arms. There were only so many ways to cover up a failed subject.

"I assure you, everything's under control." Try as he might, Marion Bowles seemed impenetrable to his charm. "Symptoms are already improving. Much faster than any normal flu patient, I might add."

"Save it for the shareholders, Aldous." She held up a hand impatiently as she turned to leave. They hadn't come close to recreating the successful clone cells since the explosion across the pond. Their thinning subject pool could spare no more loss. "Keep me updated."


	6. Chapter 6

"Don't think I've ever met a kid who could iron his own shirts." Cosima smirked, looking around Pete's room. Not that it surprised her, he was always groomed to precision, his hair always coiffed in that Captain America way.

"I'm fully domesticated. I cook, too." He peeked over Cosima's shoulder to see the latest articles she'd pulled from the library. "I think stem cell lines are a little bit out of our reach." They were still pounding the pavement, trying to decide which direction to take their research for the science fair.

"Nah, this is just some side stuff I need to bug my parents about later." Despite her parents' best efforts, she wouldn't drop her quest for answers about DYAD. From what she could tell, it was just another renowned research institute. Granted, with deep, deep pockets. The studies were fascinating. Virus vaccines, stem cell transfers, gene therapies, it seemed like they were miracle workers.

"Now you're just showing off." Peter spun a pencil between his fingers nervously. Something had been festering deep down, as if he were awakened after spending hours on end nerding out with Cosima, thinking about questions he'd never thought before. "You ever uh, get the feeling your parents aren't telling you everything?"

"Dude, I had 'The Talk' when I was like, six." She laughed. Her parents were happy to make her question everything. They taught her how to plow every available resource to find an answer and then question if it was really the truth. All that considered, why were they being so weird about DYAD? "But I think I know what you mean. We're supposedly at that stage of our development where we start to rebel against what we used to know…."

He usually enjoyed playing the audience to Cosima's rambles. She was so animated, like she wanted to pick the thoughts out of her brain to put it in his. He fished the electrode from under his mattress, and calmly set it on his desk.

"….there's a million theories why, but popular opinion says-" Cosima cut herself off. "Where'd you get that?"

"I found it this morning, making my bed." He replied quietly as she started to examine it.

"Whoa…" she picked it up between her thumb and her forefinger. It seemed as though for the first time, she was utterly speechless.

* * *

Meanwhile, at dinner, the parents were getting along famously.

"No, it can't possibly be worse than the first date we went on." Holly Beckwith put her arm around her husband's neck. "Hank's car ran out of gas on the way to the restaurant. We had to push the car half a mile to town!"

"I was fresh outta boot camp, I didn't have the money for a tow truck." He added sheepishly.

"I don't know, I think I'd take manual labor over after enduring months of his pickup lines." Ana laced her hands into Frederick's.

"They worked, didn't they? Power of persistence." He caught a glance at his watch. "What do you think, should we give the kids another call?"

"I'm sure they're fine." Ana gave his shoulder a rub. "Peter's such a sweet boy, it was so nice of him to take extra notes for Cosima." She added in gratitude. He definitely had mom's seal of approval.

"He speaks very highly of Cosima, we can't wait to meet her." Hank replied. He was just glad his son finally made a real friend. "Didn't think anyone would ever be able to pull Pete away from his computer games."

"Peas in a pod, those two." Frederick replied. "Although, did you hear about the tweaks in C++ Microsoft's been beta testing?" He looked to Hank, who was all too happy to engage.

"Oh boy, we're gonna be here awhile." Holly sipped her wine.

"Gives us more time to gossip about those stem cell trials they're running up in Toronto." Ana winked. This dinner was going swimmingly. Pity it took this long to get them all together. She had a feeling they'd made new lifelong friends.

* * *

"Um, okay, I uh, it could be anything." Cosima was slowly finding her words again. "Your parents are scientists. It could've just gotten stuck in the wash, and ended up scrunched in your sheets." She was trying to reason her way to a logical answer. "My mom uses these in her neuro lab all the time."

"My parents don't do that kind of science." He replied. He'd visited their labs. They had lizards, turtles, and the occasional rat. This was equipment for a much bigger subject.

"We can't jump to conclusions here." Cosima wouldn't accept that it was used on him. It was ridiculous. Her knee-jerk reaction was to agree with him, but they needed more facts to be sure.

"They make me go to these doctors twice a year" He explained his building suspicion. "They say it's because I got really sick when I was little, and they were just being cautious. I don't know, after all this time, it doesn't add up any more, you know?" He stared through those warm, bespectacled eyes that greeted him so kindly on his first day at school, that first friendly face that granted him sanctuary. She was the only one he could trust with this revelation.

Cosima wished she could give him the answers he craved. She could hear the front door opening downstairs. The grown-ups were back. Whatever is was they were on the brink of discovering, it would have to wait. "Shit..." She shook her head, starting to pack her books. "Let's see what we can dig up online tonight, I'll bug my parents about their dinner, and we'll hit the library tomorrow, okay?" If they put their heads together, they could certainly get to the bottom of it.

"Okay." He nodded, taking small comfort in her selfless loyalty to his cause. She was ready to go to the wall for him. "Better go meet them, might give you a head start." He managed to crack a smile, escorting her down the stairs.

"You kids behave?" Ana greeted them from the front door.

"Did you?" Cosima snarked back, before looking to his parents. "Hey, I'm Cosima."

There it was. That face they had seen in pictures and in lab results more than a dozen times over. The model for their own line of work. But, here? In their home? Most importantly, in contact with their son? "So nice to finally meet you." Hank broke the silence.

"Peter, better get up to bed, it's a school night." Holly started to send him off. They were going to have to fix this, and fast.

"And we better be on our way." Frederick replied in kind. "C'mon kiddo."

"I'll, uh, see you tomorrow." Pete waved with a half-smile. He was going to be fine, Cosima would see to it.

"Yeah, later, man." She waved one last time as they headed off. No way was she getting sleep tonight. She wanted to be armed with info when she saw him in the morning.

* * *

Holly checked their so-called junk drawer to make sure everything was in order. Plane tickets, new address, it was all there. Now, to break the news. She climbed the stairs, and found Pete getting ready for bed. "Cosima's great, isn't she?" He was so glad they finally met.

"She seems lovely." She sat at the foot of his bed. It truly broke her heart to have to do this to him. "Sweetie, dad's been relocated. We have to be on the move by morning."

"What? That's bullshit! We just moved here!" He was shocked. Angry, even. How could the Army do this to his family so soon?

"I'm sorry, sweetie, it's an emergency." She tried to console him. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

"I don't care! I'm not going!" He protested. His suspicions had to be right.

* * *

The next morning, Cosima walked her same route to school, swinging by Pete's on the way. She'd spent all night researching what she could find, toeing a few questionable websites to gather data. She couldn't wait to talk to him about it. What she didn't expect to see was an empty driveway. She cautiously approached the door, afraid of confirming her immediate suspicion. She peered in through the windows. It was empty, like they were never there.

Peter was gone.


	7. Chapter 7

Cosima had been barricaded in her room for weeks. No news from Peter. His whole family just up and left without a trace. It didn't sit right with her. No way he'd leave without saying goodbye. She'd thought about their last conversation many, many times. She'd pored through miles of research, trying to fit the pieces together. DYAD kept coming up clean, supposedly she could trust her own parents, but the question remained, why would parents secretly study their kids?

"Sweetie…" Ana knocked on the door softly. "Dinner's on the table."

"Not hungry." She continued typing away as Ana opened the door a crack.

"You have to eat, hon." It was the only comfort she could really offer since her friend disappeared. She was starting to have her own suspicions, but she didn't dare share them. She gradually let herself find a seat on the foot of Cosima's bed.

"How are the applications coming along?" Perhaps a change in subject could stir a few more words out of her sullen teenager. College applications seemed like a safe start.

"Fine." Cosima stuck to her brevity. No one really worried about her getting into a great school.

"I wish you'd talk to us about it, Cos." Ana finally relented. Their family wasn't in the business of being coy, might as well try to put it out in the open again.

"I don't wanna talk about it." He was gone. There was nothing they could do to fix it. But still, there was something that'd been on her mind. Her parents were usually honest with her, she had no reason to distrust them. Here goes nothing. "What's your deal with DYAD?"

Ana had to expect this question eventually. Frankly, with Cosima's inquisitive nature, she was surprised it took her this long. They'd talked about the birds and the bees, she knew she was born through In-Vitro Fertilization, she might as well know the whole story.

"We'd tried IVF a few times before we had you." Ana explained. "One reason or another, it wouldn't take. We were researching medical trials, and DYAD came up. What they had, it…it was miraculous, hon." This, coming from a scientist.

"So, you enrolled." Cosima crossed her legs under her. "How'd it work?" Her second favorite question.

"We were precisely matched to a surrogate fertilized egg, and I was pumped full of hormones to make sure you stuck around in there." Ana shrugged. That was the gist of it, as far as she knew she agreed to. Her suspicions would stay under wraps. There was no need for Cosima to get herself wrapped up in it. "And, lucky for us, you decided to hang around." She leaned in closer, nuzzling Cosima's shoulder.

"Lucky me, I could've been hitched with some prepsters in Connecticut." Cosima finally allowed for a smile to escape.

"Don't think they would've let you get away with dreadlocks." Ana laughed, brushing a hand through Cosima's new 'do.

"Though, Darwin might argue growing up in a different environment I wouldn't want them." Cosima gleefully piled on the science.

"There's my little genius." Ana beamed, hoping this finally got Cosima out of her funk. "Anything else you want to know? We're an open book."

"There's just one more thing." She replied after careful consideration. She was satisfied with the answers she'd gotten, but there was just one more thing that was bugging her.

"If DYAD was so great, why do you get mad when dad talks about them?" She'd heard those fights that went on when her parents thought she was fast asleep. "I have ears, ya know."

Ana couldn't bring herself to tell the truth. She didn't want Cosima looking into Neolution. She didn't want her to start asking the same unanswered questions she had. No. Her primary responsibility as a mother was to keep her daughter safe and sound. "Your father was offered a job, and I decided we weren't going to pick up and move to Toronto." She replied simply. It wasn't a lie, but it certainly wasn't the whole truth. "Sometimes you don't always agree with the people you love, and that's okay, sweetie."

Cosima felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. None of this was going to bring back Peter, but at least she could stop worrying about her own parents.

* * *

"All quiet on the Western front?" Frederick asked, taking his dishes to the sink as Ana took the liberty of finishing her lesson plan on his open laptop.

"Think we cured her teenage angst." Ana finished the last few tweaks of the slideshow. She was distracted by the email that popped in his inbox. Final offer contract. From DYAD. "Fred, what's this?" She turned the screen around, giving him a heartbeat to answer before she grew livid.

He hadn't meant for Ana to find out this way. "The software I've been working on, DYAD wants to buy it, that's all." He was backpedaling already. "It's got a lot of potential for genetic research. Dr. Leekie says it can help more families like us."

Throwing in the Neolutionist's name only hindered his cause. "Families like us?" She scoffed. "You believe that coming from the guy who tried to recruit us to work for his neo-eugenic better human nonsense?"

"It's not like that, sweetheart, I promise." Dr. Leekie had managed to make him fully entranced. He truly believed he was doing the right thing.

"Get out." Her low timbre made it all the more frightening. There was no need for Cosima to be overhearing this argument too. He kept this secret from her, and it was unforgiveable. She would not have it in her house. Not tonight.

"Ana…" He tried to plead his case.

"Out."

* * *

Strapped to the bed, lights dim, brusque hands poking and prodding. A pinprick, a needle, maybe?

Cosima awoke gasping. She eyes darted frantically to the walls. She was alone. The nightmare was so vivid, it was like Peter's horrific encounter was haunting her. But it wasn't real, she assured herself.

Downstairs, the front door lock clicked firmly back in place.


	8. Chapter 8

"I'm just concerned, Dr. Leekie." Frederick had no choice but to talk to the good doctor after Ana unceremoniously kicked him to the curb. He loved his work, but he couldn't put it above his family. He had to find a way out of this deal if he wanted to come back home.

"Concerned you might make too much of a difference?" Aldous leaned back in his chair. Frederick traveled a long way to get to DYAD, might as well kill 'em with kindness before he brings the full weight of his wrath down.

"No, it's not that, I assure you." Frederick replied nervously. He didn't want to sell his wife out either, as that would only get him in deeper trouble. "It's um, it's just a really tough time for my family right now."

"Raising a teenager's a full time job in itself." Aldous nodded knowingly. Frederick didn't know it, but he hit him in his soft spot. He got too attached to his subjects, his colleagues chided him for it all the time.

"A few more hormones than I can handle." Frederick acknowledged it. Cosima's recent woes aside, it was a lot to juggle.

"And how are those college applications coming along?"

"Swimmingly." He was grateful for the change in subject. He was a proud father, he wouldn't miss the chance to brag about Cosima. "I think the hardest thing is trying to keep her in the Bay area." Stanford, Berkeley, they were competing with the likes of Harvard and MIT. The suitors were lined up for her.

"A parent's favorite dilemma." Aldous was almost jealous. "A summer of bench research would be excellent for her academic resume. Say the word, and I can make a phone call." Dangling another carrot when Frederick was trying to weasel away.

"Kind of you to offer, Dr. Leekie." Also, a move that would push him further in the doghouse. "But, Cosima's already signed up for the summer with Dr. Wharton at Berkeley."

"Ah, the early bird catches the proverbial worm. We've been a fan of his work for a long time." Aldous folded his arms. "But, hopefully I'm not too late to grab the patent on that terrific software of yours." He turned the tables on the conversation again. He wrote something down on a folded scrap of paper and slid it across the table. "As you can see, my superiors are very, very interested in applying your technology in our projects.

Frederick unfolded the scrap, peeking at the number written down. It was an unholy amount of zeroes. His jaw slowly dropped, but no words would come out of his mouth. "I…I need to talk to my wife about this." He finally said.

"Take all the time you need. We'll be here when you're ready." Aldous shook hands with him. It wasn't the answer he wanted, but it didn't seem like he was going to get what he needed without the whole family on board. DYAD always got what they wanted, Aldous just hoped it could happen the easy way.

"Thank you for understanding, really." Frederick was relieved to buy a little more time. He wasn't worried about the money, he was a highly regarded programmer in the middle of a software boom. None of those earnings could buy his wife's forgiveness. He had to make things right at home first.

* * *

Advanced Placement Biology might as well have been a paint-by-numbers class for Cosima. The knowledge flowed seamlessly from the page to her brain. She devoured textbooks like mystery novels, each chapter unlocking a new part of who she was.

"…And who can tell us why we use _Taq_ polymerase in the Polymerase Chain Reaction procedure?" The teacher paced through the lab. She didn't even have to look to know Cosima's hand flew up first.

"It's heat-stable, so it can blast through all the crazy temperature swings, no problem." She had a knack for translating the science to normal-speak.

"Bingo. We're gonna use PCR to isolate and amplify the Cytochrome C, or the cooler name as it's better known, the 'Barcode Gene.' Who's got a guess why?" The teacher looked back to a sea of shrugging faces, save for Cosima, whose raised hand flew wildly, as though the information would sprout from her ears if she couldn't give it a voice.

"We can use it to differentiate between species. All of ours'll be pretty similar because we're humans with some way distant cousin, but compare it to like, a bean plant and it'll be hella different. Closest relative we'll have is some bacterium from millions of years ago."

"That, we'll cover in the next part of the lab when you all get your results. For now, follow the procedures in Module A for your cheek swab, and be sure to shout out if you've got questions." The teacher set them off to unlock their DNA. Just another cake walk for Cosima.

* * *

Ana agreed to meet with Frederick at a small greasy spoon diner. She'd hoped he could earn the trip home with what he had to say. Instead, she found herself shell-shocked at the number scrawled out on crumpled piece of paper. "Holy…decimal places."

"I know." He stirred his coffee restlessly. He was starting to see why Ana had grown so wary of DYAD. "And the way he talked about it, they seem kind of desperate to have it."

"Some hair-brained Neolution experiment of his going wrong?" She mused aloud.

"He wasn't very generous with the details." And that only furthered his suspicions. In his mind, this was settled, and he had a feeling Ana would be on board. "We have to say no."

* * *

"I trust it's all settled, Aldous?" Marion greeted him in her office. She was ready for some good news.

"Just about." He smiled nervously. He knew it was the wrong answer.

"Did you show him the new offer?"

"Show him, I thought I was going to have to resuscitate him after." He maintained a light chuckle.

"I'm glad you're finding this humorous, Aldous." Marion quickly cut him down. "While you were blowing the software deal, we lost SP-91 in the lab. How many attempts does that make?"

"Two hundred and six." He sighed. All of them, failures.

"This software has the potential to do a month's worth of sequencing in days. The faster we fail, the faster we can attempt to remedy our shortcomings." Marion didn't know why she had to explain this line of logic thought to a scientist. "Why hasn't he signed?"

"If I were to venture a hypothesis, I would say we need to sway Dr. Niehaus with something other than money." If money and power wouldn't work for her, he couldn't promise a positive result. His lines were blurred when it came to advancing scientific progress.


	9. Chapter 9

Cosima turned the lab slip over in her hands. Anomalous for Cytochrome C? It had to be some sort of mistake. "Um, Mrs. Hall? Are you sure about this?" She approached the teacher's desk as her classmates got to work.

"I checked the analysis myself." The teacher shrugged. She knew it wasn't like Cosima to make a mistake with the procedure. She was easily the best student in the class, and could certainly hold her own with the best at the college level. "The sample must've gotten contaminated on its way to the genetics lab."

Cosima scanned the information again. No way was it contamination, the rest of her information was sound, a contaminated sample would've screwed everything up.

"You can use one of the other samples for your lab report, and your grade won't suffer, I promise." She added with a consoling smile. Cosima seemed to be taking the news harshly.

"Thanks, I'll, uh, get back to it." She wasn't satisfied by the explanation at all. Something was off, and she was determined to get to the bottom of it.

* * *

"Dr. Niehaus, Thank you for joining us on such short notice." The Dean of Faculty welcomed her into his office with a sturdy handshake.

"Always have time for you in my schedule, Dean Reynolds." She smiled, sitting in the uncomfortable chair across from him. "Thanks, by the way, for the days off to hit the lecture circuit."

"Of course." He smiled nervously. "Your research on neural regeneration is a gift we're happy to help you share." He seemed shifty. Ana was growing less comfortable by the second. Surely, this wasn't about her research.

"Unfortunately, I have to be the bearer of bad news." He looked to his colleagues seated beside him.

"What kind of bad news?" This was coming out of left field for Ana.

"We've lost the funding for your tenured position." There was no way to put it gently, really. Outside forces were pressuring him pretty hard. He had no choice but to do what they wanted.

"What? How?" He'd said it himself, she was doing groundbreaking research. Something was definitely up.

"I'm sorry, Dr. Niehaus, a few of our donors pulled their funding, there was nothing we could do." Dr. Leekie and the DYAD institute had a very long and influential reach. The orders were clear, pull her funding, or lose the whole department's money for a year. He had to act.

"I expected more from you, really." She shook her head. She was starting to get an idea of where this was coming from. "You can tell your friends in Toronto this doesn't change anything." She rose from her chair angrily, leaving in a fit of rage. They were fighting dirty now, and Ana didn't like being threatened.

* * *

"Take the library out again?" Frederick snuck a mug of hot cocoa between stacks of papers.

"Just a little extra reading for class." A little, being three textbooks, and about twenty different journal articles, and strewn about the kitchen table. Cytochrome C was her new nemesis. She'd always had a feeling she was a little bit different, but if all these studies were right, the implications were freakin' huge. There were few things that could explain her anomaly, and each sounded more bizarre than the next.

"Just promise you'll finish your college stuff, maybe give your mother a night of sleep so she stops worrying about her daughter losing out on her bright bright future?" She'd been on edge since they'd decided to stall with DYAD. For now, they could only hope that Cosima was too busy with her schoolwork and applications to catch wise. She was too smart to stay in the dark forever.

"Got all my recommendations, all I need a few postage stamps to seal the deal." She patted another short stack of envelopes waiting to be sent across the country. "This time next year, I could be 2500 miles away." She finally looked up from her work, shooting a teasing smile.

"Or, 25 feet." Like all parents, he wanted what was best for his daughter, but he really wished she would go to school closer to home.

"Dream on, old man." She was keeping her options open, but it was more fun to play with his feelings.

Ana slipped in the front door, still carrying the weight of her last meeting on her shoulders. They were in way deeper than they'd ever bargained. "Look at you go, Cos." She put on a smile. Cosima was innocent in all this, and it was going to stay that way no matter what she had to do.

"Extra reading." Frederick explained, employing the use of air quotations.

"Just a little, huh?" Ana took a glance at some of the titles. Advanced genetic sequencing, Cytochrome C, What were they teaching in AP Biology these days? "Alright, I'm beat. What do you say you order us some take-out?" She tossed the menu stack on top of the fray.

"Ooh, free reign?" She thumbed through the wrinkled flyers.

"Whatever you like, your father and I are going to argue over who pays upstairs." She winked, nodding for him to follow her up.

* * *

"…to be fair, it is your turn." He loosened his tie as Ana shut the door behind them.

"Have you heard anything from them since…you know?" Ana asked, her tone changing on a dime.

"No, no, nothing yet, why?" He'd been pulling out the stops on all of his stall tactics since Leekie dropped that insane buyout amount.

"I lost my tenure today." She folded her arms, leaning against the dresser. "Something about funding being pulled.

"What? That's ridiculous, you practically run the department."

"They're not firing me, but they're making it pretty damn hard for me to stay." She sighed. "I know it sounds crazy, but I think DYAD has something to do with it."

"Jesus, what are they hiding?" Frederick took pause. DYAD crossed a line when they decided to mess with his family. He pulled the lockbox out from under their bed, holding the hard drive with all of his data, his years of hard work in his hands. There was only one way to ensure it never got into their hands. "We have to destroy it. I don't see this ending any other way."

"Fred…" She couldn't ask him to do it, but a part of her was relieved he'd volunteered. Still, she knew how much he'd sacrificed to finish his work. He'd spent countless hours working overtime trying to debug his coding, he'd lost weekends and family trips on beta testing, all to be tossed because a big bad group wasn't getting their way. It just wasn't fair.

"We don't have a choice, love." He resigned in a sigh. He'd betrayed his family's trust by starting his work with Leekie. This was his chance to turn the tables, and put it all to rest. He'd come up with an explanation somehow.

Downstairs, Cosima resumed wading through her scholarly paper trail hoping to find a snippet of information that steered her in the right direction. Her eyes fell on a particular study, bearing the familiar DYAD letterhead. "Cloning mitochondrial DNA in _Rana pipiens"_ She scanned the title in an excited murmur. Just the DNA that coded for the protein in question. IVF studies and cloning, huh? What an institution. She slid the paper neatly into her notebook, hearing her parents making their return. She was running into the belly of the beast her mother was trying to help them escape.


End file.
